BCU September 2024- Criminology, Policing And Investigation Course

I did the criminology degree and just graduated. Course is lots of essays, only a couple of exams which are open book. Most of the good lecturers have left now and the ones that remain are a bit meh to be honest. Prepare to copy from lots of powerpoints! Lectures are 2 hours long and seminars are 1 hour. If you're lucky to still get workshops, make use of these as I got my best grades with them. Although they were taken from us in 2nd year, but I heard they were coming back for the newbies so who knows.
Future career expectations are the usual - police, civil service, CPS, probation, etc. Although you can apply for grad schemes in anything - I have a friend who did criminology & security studies and was accepted on to a grad scheme with Network Rail!
Overall, I wasnt too impressed with the course. I was looking for something that would challenge me and it didnt really. I found it quite easy. There's a module that you will have that I thought sounded really interesting - organised crime - but unfortunately the lecturer made it really boring. I mean, it takes a real skill for a module based on trafficking and global organised crime have all the fun sucked out of it. I didnt attend 1 lecture in one module and still got a first which proved to me, that lectures are a waste of time!
Tips - don't buy the textbooks - you don't need them. Reference everything. Show your face at some seminars even though I found them a waste of time. Read up on all the criminological theories - they don't give you any hints really. If they offer you placement year, or placement instead of dissertation - take it - it will really help when it comes to looking for a job. Degrees are great and all but the market is so over saturated with people with degrees, employers are really looking for experience.
They spoon feed you pretty much everything though.